To Be Determined
by Vampidity
Summary: "No one will blame you for walking away, but to much rejection..." Can love truly conquer anything?
1. Chapter 1

The dawn of day reached out to caress the sleeping child in her bed. Slowly luring her from the weightless grips of slumber. Stretching her arms above her head and with an arch of her back, a yawn escaped from her parted lips. Turning away from the greetings of dawn's tickling tendrils, she twisted away from the light to snuggle back into the comfort of her pillow. Wanting to reclaim the feel of dreams once again she allowed herself to fall back into sleeps waiting embrace.

Only it wasn't a dream that flashed across her mind's eye like lighting and flooded through her body like the crash of a wave. The events of the night before began an effortless dance across her waking conscious with the intensity of dejavu. Flitting back and forth from one memory only to have the next leap to the fore of her thoughts with dizzying effects. Pressing her eyes tightly closed, as if it would keep the elusive memories from escaping her, she lay still trying to gain control of the flippant dream.

"But it wasn't a dream," she mutters to herself, "It was real."

The feelings that swell up from within grab at her throat and press upon her eyes from the merest notion that the friends she had made during and after her trip through the Labyrinth were merely a figment of her imagination. It was almost too much to bare for her. Shaking the thought from her head as if the most miraculous thing ever to happen to her could be no more than a dream was preposterous. Raising from her slumber, she grips the comforter around her waist.

"It was all real," she whispers to herself as if the more she says it the more it will be true.

A knock on her door breaks her slow decent into despair.

"Sarah," calls a woman's voice from the other side. Without waiting on an answer, the door swings inward and gives way to her stepmother. Taking only two steps into the room, merely enough so that she can make eye contact with the girl. She sweeps her eyes over the room, taking in the trashed appearance of the once semi-tidy room.

"Really Sarah," she begins in a huff, "I understand you were upset last night, but there was no call for you to destroy your room. You _do_ understand you'll have to clean this before you are allowed to go anywhere today."

For once in her life, instead of allowing her anger at a situation to get the better of her, she sits there in silence letting the words of her stepmother wash over her. Turning to look at the state of her own bedroom, she is further shocked to find that the events of last nights victory party are still spread across her room. Bits of confetti and silly string litter across every solid surface. Feathers dust across her stuff animals and line the edges of her shelves.

"Are you listening to me Sarah," comes the irate voice of her stepmother.

With a start, Sarah turns her undivided attention back to the woman in the doorway. Taking in the expression on the elder woman's face, she wonders briefly what to say to her. But the burning facts, that are rushing through her body faster than any adrenaline rush before keeps her tongue tied. It was real, it was all real beats a steady rhythm through her head and heart.

"Come down and eat breakfast Sarah. Then when you are done, clean this mess up before you do anything else," she continues in awhirl as she departs, not even waiting for the girl in question to answer.

Sarah can only give a small nod around the lump in her throat before her stepmother quickly and quietly shuts the door behind her. Easing back the covers, she notices that her hands have a slight shake to them. Unsure if it is from the relief pouring through her system or the excitement of it all, it doesn't matter either way. The emotions that swirl within her are beyond anything she has ever felt before. Vying with one another for which one she will notice the most.

Relief courses through her veins as she gingerly sets her feet down on the now littered carpet. Trying to avoid stepping on anything surprisingly nasty, Sarah picks her way over to the vanity in the corner. Like a tingling sensation down her spine, the need to confirm what she knew wouldn't leave her. Taking a seat in front of the mirror on the desk, Sarah regards her reflection looking back at her. Licking her suddenly dry lips, the case of nerves that has set upon her causes her stomach to roll violently. Swallowing down the feel of rising bile, she wets her lip once more and peers more closely at her reflection.

Forcing the words past her ever drying lips, the words tumble out on a stutter, "I..ne..need you."


	2. Chapter 2

Sucking in a breath as soon as the last word leaves her parted lips, Sarah anxiously waits for her friends to make an appearance like last nights. Anything could happen in the next few seconds that would change her life indefinitely. As the seconds begin to stretch into minutes, Sarah feels the sharp stab of disappointment.

Nothing.

Just as her disappointment begins to take over, a thud from behind startles her out of her inner turmoil. Turning in her chair, she glances around the room in suspicious surprise. Nothing seemed to have moved from the last time she had taken inventory of her disheveled room. The muted clank of pots and pans informed her that the usual morning rituals were still taking place downstairs. Which could only mean that what ever had made the noise wasn't part of the current household.

Another thud, ringing out from the closet, pinpoints the location of the intruder. Jumping to her feet, Sarah once again picks her way across the littered carpet. A series of thuds and clacks from behind the closed door make her pause momentarily. Squaring her shoulders, she takes the last few steps toward the door.

"Hoggle," she calls out as she reaches for the door knob.

As soon as the door disengages, it bursts open under the weight on the other side sending both parties tumbling to the bedroom floor. Complaints, groans, and muttered oaths pour from the small pile of struggling bodies. Disentangling themselves from each other, Sarah takes in the small band that has come through her closet door. Hoggle, Sir Didymus, Ludo, and a small band of goblins struggle on the floor in front of her. A smile graces Sarah's face right before tears and laughter began to shake her body. She had thought the relief from early had been tremendous, but the sensation working its way thru her chest now outweighs the almost suffocating emotions from earlier.

"My Lady," begins Sir Didymus, as he is the first from the writhing pile of bodies, "What foe has brought you to tears? Show them to me at once so that I may make them pay for such heartache!"

"Sarah, Sad," comments Ludo in his quiet way as he stands apart from the struggling bodies on the floor.

"Oh, get off me," groans Hoggle as he tries to squirm free from under a couple of goblins.

Sniffling back tears, Sarah grins at her friends in relief, amusement, and astonishment.

"I'm fine Sir Didymus," she replies as she wipes the tear streaks from her face, "I had the strangest feeling though."

Moving to help Hoggle out from under the mischief goblins on top of him, Sarah reaches between the frolicking goblins to take hold of the dwarf on the bottom of the pile.

"Must all of you tease Hoggle like this," Sarah chides the goblins as she tries in vain to dislodge them.

Seeing that Sarah has caught on to them, the goblins roll off Hoggle to scurry to the side. Amongst cackles of laughter and with grins plastered on their faces, they scamper out of range of the annoyed dwarf. Sarah helps Hoggle to his feet now that he is goblin free.

"Why didn't you appear in the mirror," Sarah questions as soon as Hoggle is standing.

Muttering to himself about darn goblins and their foul habits, he avoids making eye contact with Sarah. He preoccupies the silence with removing sticky bits of string from his person where goblins had stuck them.

"Hoggle," Sarah cajoles.

"We were impeded," Sir Didymus answers instead.

"By who," questions Sarah in shock.

"Jareth," bites out Hoggle, "Who else do ya think?"

Staring at Hoggle in stunned silence, Sarah tries to process this information. When she had called upon them last night, they had appeared instantly at her side with half the goblin kingdom in tow. To learn that the Goblin King was now putting effort into delaying her friends from visiting made her suspicious. A frown slowly graces her lips as Sarah tries to figure out what could cause this new predicament.

"Don't you worry about nuthin'," Hoggle continues as he notices Sarah's expression, "Jareth may have say over the mirror magic, but I know of other ways to travel between.

"Fear not Fair Maiden," trumpets Sir Didymus, "When you call upon us, then we will surely come. Even if we have to fight the Goblin Army and it's King to reach your side!"

"Yeah," nods Ludo, "Sarah friend."

"You could get hurt," Sarah replies as her frown deepens with concern for her friends. Glancing at the band of goblins, she looked to see how they had taken such conversation. She found that they were still laughing amongst themselves over the prank they had pulled on Hoggle earlier. Shaking her head at their actions, she dismissed them and focused instead on hugging her friends.

Still laughing amongst themselves at the opportunity that had been presented to them to make the dwarfs life miserable, something they just couldn't let pass. They choose to ignore the conversation behind them in favor for more entertaining adventures like going through Sarah's things. After all, it's not everyday they're allowed into the mortal realm. Most of the wishers they had the ill fate to meet didn't even care enough to run the labyrinth to retrieve what had been taken. Only a select few had ever attempted such a feat, yet even fewer had ever returned once they set foot within. But for the few who had not succumbed to the magical beings inside the Labyrinth, once they returned from within they had never uttered or contemplated about the Labyrinth or its' inhabitants.

Yet this girl, Sarah, had summoned them to her. Called upon them not once, but twice in less than thirteen hours. It was more then any other being, human or fae, had ever done before. She interested them.

"Jareth might be a rat," explains Hoggle, "But he can't stop a summons. He might slow us down, but even he has to answer a calling once it is uttered."

"Oh," begins Sarah as she still doesn't fully understand this new situation.

A knock on her bedroom door stops any further conversation and ends the goblins' amusement. All eyes turn to focus on the door in a mix of panic and fear. A stillness settles over the room as Sarah waits for the door to open.

"Sarah," calls a man's voice from the other side of the door, "Breakfast is ready. Come down and join us before it gets cold."

Letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding, Sarah let's a sigh of relief out. If it had been her stepmother, then she wouldn't have waited for an answer. She would have just opened the door to confront Sarah.

"Coming Daddy. I'll just be a minute," Sarah answers in hopes of stalling for some time.

As she glances back to where her friends were, she finds the closet door shut and no one to be seen. Sarah shakes her head as she picks her way back across her bedroom toward the door her father stands behind. Opening it, she looks up in to the concerned face of her father. He takes in her appearance the disorder of the room behind her.

"Everything all right," he asks in concern as a smile spreads his lips.

"Yes," Sarah answers returning the smile back, "Everything is wonderful!"

And for once, since her parents divorce, she actually means it.

"I'm starving," Sarah says as she steps into the hall closing her door behind her. Taking her father's arm, she leads the way downstairs to the dinning room. Though little did she know, not all of the occupants in her room had returned to the Goblin Kingdom. If she had, then she may not have been so eager to join her family at breakfast.


End file.
